‘You want to become billionaires? List on NSE,’ says Ashish Chauhan, CEO of India’s National Stock Exchange

Entrepreneurs or startup founders wanting to get rich — and become billionaires — should list on India’s National Stock Exchange, the bourse’s CEO Ashish Kumar Chauhan said at CNBC’s CONVERGE LIVE event in Singapore on Wednesday.

India is in a place where there’s “a lot of brains, a lot of enterprise and very little capital is required,” he said.

So many enterprises have emerged in the South Asian powerhouse in just the last year, Chauhan said, adding that around 200 micro companies listed on the NSE in 2024 alone.

“Some of them are going to become tomorrow’s billionaires. So, I tell a lot of people … You want to become billionaires? List on NSE,” Chauhan told CNBC’s Steve Sedgwick.

A total of $19.2 billion was amassed from listings in Indian markets last year, Chauhan said, highlighting that this was the largest number of listings in the world.

So far, listings on the Indian market are “still continuing,” this year, although “not with the same speed,” as in 2024, he said.

“If the market comes up … you will see many more IPOs [initial public offerings] going forward,” he added.

The NSE’s own IPO is one that investors are watching closely following several delays since its initial filing back in 2016. Chauhan, however, did not provide much insight on when the IPO will be launched.

Previous reports indicate that India’s largest stock exchange is awaiting clearance from the securities regulator before it can proceed.

Chauhan’s optimism on Indian markets comes even as equities have bottomed out after a weak start to the year.

The benchmark Nifty 50 index and the BSE Sensex index — which represents 30 of the country’s largest and most traded firms on the Bombay Stock Exchange — are down 5.37% and 5.72%, respectively, since the start of the year.

Indian stocks have been hurt by concerns over valuations as well as the strength of the U.S. dollar, which has dimmed the appeal of overseas assets for foreign investors, Chauhan said on the sidelines of the conference.

“Valuations are now back to near their 10-year average and that should attract both retail investors and foreign institutional investors,” Chauhan told CNBC.

More Indians are investing in the stock market — with the number rising from around 16 million in 2014 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi came into office to around 110 million today, Chauhan estimated.

Prior to this, most Indians were primarily investing in physical assets like real estate and gold, he said.

“Broadly speaking, you can call anyone a trader. But of course, we also continue to inform them via media, social media, print, television, saying [that] buying in the morning and selling in the afternoon is not called investment,” Chauhan added.

Around 2% of Indian investors are invested in derivatives, Chauhan noted. Meanwhile, nearly half, or around 50 million people, invest in mutual funds and put in as little as $50 into systematic investment plans every month, he said.